CPW-fed patch antenna with switchable polarization sense

This paper presents the design and development of a CPW-fed microstrip patch antenna with polarization reconfigurability (RHCP/LHCP). The basic antenna is a circular microstrip antenna excited by a CPW-fed diagonal slot and a CPW open end. First, experimental and simulated results are presented for the passive antenna. Then, an active antenna using beam-lead PIN diodes to switch the polarization sense is proposed. Simulations are presented including electrical parameters for the diode modeling. The deviation between simulated and experimental results is finally discussed.